nd red god.[1163] A Californian cosmogonic myth
describes a nonmoral conflict of work between the good "Creator" and the
malicious Coyote.[1164] A real unification appears, however, to be
rare; it supposes in fact a degree of reflection and organization that
we should not expect to find among lower peoples. The story, for
example, that has been told of a well-developed dualistic system of the
Iroquois is based on a misconception.[1165] Dualism proper is not
recognizable among the savages of America, Polynesia, Asia, or
Africa.[1166] In the Old Testament prior to the sixth century B.C. the
spirits, good and bad, which are not essentially different from those we
find among the lower tribes, are massed under the control of Yahweh, and
do his bidding without moral reflection; when he sends a lying spirit
into the mouth of Ahab's prophets[1167] this spirit goes without malice
merely to perform the will of the supreme god. This massing of all
spirit Powers under the control of one god is a step toward unity and
clearness in the conception of the government of the world.

+685+. At a later stage of social growth there appears the conception of
a cosmic struggle, the conflict between the natural forces that tend to
disorder and those that tend to order. Philosophical reflection led to
the supposition of an original chaos, a medley of natural forces not
combined or organized in such a way as to minister to the needs of human
life; and a similar conception of conflict may have arisen from
observation of the warring elements at certain seasons of the year.

+686+. The adjustment of the rival forces and the establishment of a
system of physical order is referred to the great gods. Such a picture
of the original state of things is contained in the elaborate Babylonian
cosmologies that have come down to us; in these the dragon of disorder
(Tiamat) is completely conquered by the god Bel-Marduk, who represents
the Babylonian civilization of the time in which the cosmology arose. Of
the same nature is the Egyptian myth of the contest between Horus (the
light) and Set (the dark), in which, however, the victory of Horus is
not described as being absolute[1168]--a representation suggested,
possibly, by the recognition of the persistence of the good and bad
elements of the world; compare the cosmologies of the Maidu and the
Khonds mentioned above (Sec.684). In the Greek and Teutonic myths in which
the Giants are the enemies of the great god